Vol. 30 No. 1and2 (2024): Gaza, genocide and media - PJR 30 years on, special double edition

When editor Philip Cass and I, as founding editor, started planning for this 30th anniversary edition of Pacific Journalism Review, we wanted a theme that would fit such an important milestone. At the time when we celebrated the second decade of the journal’s critical inquiry at Auckland University of Technology with a conference in 2014, our theme was ‘Political journalism in the Asia Pacific’, and our mood about the mediascape in the region was far more positive than it is today (Duffield, 2015). Three years later, we marked the 10th anniversary of the Pacific Media Centre, with a conference and a rather gloomier ‘Journalism under duress’ slogan. The PJR cover then featured a gruesome corpse at the height of Rodrigo Duterte’s callous and bloodthirsty ‘war on drugs’—and on media—in the Philippines. Three years later again the PMC itself had been closed in spite of its success.

In the middle of last year when we settled on a call for papers for PJR with the theme ‘Will journalism survive?’ we seemed to be on the right track given the post-COVID-19 pandemic surge of conspiracy theories and disinformation, Trumpian fake news and assault on democracy, and a disturbing global decline in public confidence and trust in mainstream media. The profession of journalism was and remains under grave threat.

However, little did we reckon on 7 October 2023 and the fact that the world would be thrown into such a dystopian upheaval as a result of a surprise and extraordinarily daring attack on Israel by Hamas resistance fighters breaking out of Gaza, the world’s ‘largest open-air prison’.

EDITORIAL NOTE: After the editorial of Pacific Journalism Review and the lead article in this edition (Vol 30, No 1&2) about the fate of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange were printed, he was set free and he arrived back in Australia after a plea bargain.

Editor: Philip Cass
Founding and production editor: David Robie
Frontline editor: Wendy Bacon
Assistant editors: Khairiah A. Rahman, Nicole Gooch
Reviews editor: Philip Cass
Online edition editor: David Robie
Designer: Del Abcede
Proof readers: Linnéa Eltes
Cover design: Del Abcede
Cover photo: David Robie
Tuwhera OJS online support: Donna Coventry and Sophie Baker
Print edition: PinkLime